1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to new anthracycline glycoside antibiotics, to methods for their use as antimicrobial and antitumor agents, to pharmaceutical compositions containing them and to methods for the preparation and recovery of said new compounds.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A number of anthracycline glycosides have been disclosed in the literature. Among them, daunomycin (U.S. Pat. No. 3,616,242; U.K. Pat. No. 1,003,383) and adriamycin (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,590,028 and 3,803,124), which are obtained from the cultured broth of certain streptomyces, have a broad antitumor spectrum against various experimental tumors and are used clinically as potent chemotherapeutic agents. Despite the usefulness of adriamycin and daunomycin as clinical antitumor agents, it is known that they have severe side effects such as alopecia, leukopenia and cardiotoxicity.
The present inventors have extensively studied the chemical modification of daunomycin and adriamycin with the goal of preparing new derivatives of these glycosides having increased anticancer activity and reduced toxicity (side effects). By the present invention, they have succeeded in providing new ether derivatives of adriamycin and daunomycin which possess the desired high antitumor activity and low toxicity.